Soviet Far East Front

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The Far Eastern Front was a Front (military subdivision) of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. This sense of the term is not identical with the more general usage of military front which indicates a geographic area in wartime, although a Soviet Front may operate within designated boundaries.

The Far Eastern Front was created on June 28, 1938 from the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army within the Far East Military District. It included the Soviet First Army and the Soviet Second Army. On the eve of the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany, the Front comprised:

• Soviet First Army
  • 26th Rifle Corps
    • 21st, 22nd, 26th Rifle Divisions
  • 59th Rifle Corps
    • 39th, 59th Rifle Divisions
    • 1st, 4th, 5th Rifle Brigades
    • 8th Cavalry Division
• Soviet Second Army
• 15th Army
• 25th Army
• Special Rifle Corps
  • 79th Rifle Division
  • 101st Mountain Rifle Division
  • 35th Rifle Division
  • 66th Rifle Division
  • 78th Rifle Division

In 1938 Front forces - seemingly the Soviet 32nd Rifle Division of 39th Rifle Corps - engaged the Japanese at the Battle of Lake Khasan.

In Operation August Storm, it led the attack into Japanese-occupied Manchuria. The Imperial Japanese Army was in a dreadfully weakened state, and the Japanese defenders were overwhelmed by the offensive. Soon Mongolia and Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist China joined the Soviet cause. On August 19, the Far East Front continued its routing of the Kantogun army by capturing Harbin and Mukden. By August 21, the Red Army had captured almost all of Manchuria, and the final surrender of the Kantogun took place.

On August 5, 1945, the Front was reorganized as the 2nd Far Eastern Front.

[edit] Commanders

• Colonel General I.P. Apanisenko [promoted to full General in February 1941] (January 1941-April 1943)
• Colonel General Maxim A. Purkaev [promoted to full General in October 1944] (April 1943-August 1945)

[edit] Sources

• David Glantz, Stumbling Colossus, University Press of Kansas, 1998 (for 1941 order of battle)